Summary Hannibal moves south from Cisalpine Gaul, crosses the Apennines and ravages Etruria; Hannibal destroys a Roman army on the shores of Lake Trasimene; the consul Gaius Flaminius is killed; After his victory, Hannibal marches his army towards the Adriatic Sea to rest and re-equip his men; The Roman popular…
Summary Hannibal destroys a huge Roman army at the Battle of Cannae. The consul Lucius Aemilius Paullus and many other Roman nobles are killed, as are tens of thousands of ordinary soldiers; After his victory, Hannibal decides not to march his exhausted and depleted army to Rome; A young Roman…
Summary Hannibal captures Casilinum; A second dictator, Marcus Fabius Buteo, is nominated to revise the roll of senators; A Roman army is ambushed and annihilated by the Boii in the Litana forest. The consul elect Lucius Postumius Albinus is killed, his head cut off, gilded and used as a drinking cup;…
Summary The Romans recapture Arpi in Apulia; Hannibal fails to achieve anything significant in Italy; The proconsul Marcus Claudius Marcellus attacks Syracuse in a combined land and naval assault; With the aid of the mathematician and engineer Archimedes, the Syracusans repel the attack; The Romans keep Syracuse under siege while…
Summary Young Publius Cornelius Scipio is elected curule aedile; Publius Licinius Crassus becomes the new pontifex maximus; The praetor urbanus suppresses foreign religious cults; Trial of the publicanus Marcus Postumius from Pyrgi for deceiving the State; Tarentum is betrayed to Hannibal, but the Romans cling on to the citadel and…
Summary Ptolemaios IV Philopator sends grain to the Romans; Introduction of the silver denarius; The former praetor Gnaeus Fulvius Flaccus is put on trial for his defeat at Herdonea and forced to go into exile; Unable to raise the siege of Capua, Hannibal decides to march on Rome; Since the…
I am currently working on a new series about the Second Punic War (218-201 BCE). This is a lot of work and it is taking up much of my spare time. I will therefore repost a ‘golden oldie’, a post I wrote many years ago for an internet forum. The…
Summary Carthage fights for survival against rebellious mercenaries and North Africans in the Mercenary War (241-238 BCE); Rome refuses to help the rebels and sends aid to Carthage instead; Hamilcar Barcas defeats the rebels at the Battle of “The Saw” and goes on the quell the entire rebellion (238 BCE);…
Summary The consuls Quintus Fulvius Flaccus and Titus Manlius Torquatus subjugate the Boii, but the remainder of their campaign is unsuccessful (224 BCE); The consuls Gaius Flaminius and Publius Furius Philus win a decisive victory over the Insubres and are both awarded a triumph (223 BCE); The consul Gnaeus Cornelius…
Summary Gaius Flaminius is elected censor and has the Circus Flaminius and the Via Flaminia built (220 BCE); Rome’s former ally Demetrios of Faros resumes his piratical activities, prompting a Roman campaign against the Illyrians (219 BCE); The Second Illyrian War ends in a decisive Roman victory. The consul Lucius…